Back in September of last year our DLH raised the issue in these pages of how history is being taught at various levels in the educational system. More recently he commented on the influence of Howard Zinn. Today at The Federalist we see an expose by Mary Grabar of how Zinn’s chickens have come home to roost:
How Howard Zinn’s Anti-American Textbook Inspired The Antifa Bombing Attempt
The power of ‘A People’s History of the United States’ to inspire violent action should not be underestimated after the ICE attack of Antifa supporter Willem Van Spronsen
(excerpt)
In Tacoma, Washington, during the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, July 13, 2019, 69-year-old Willem Van Spronsen attempted to light a propane tank on fire, torched a vehicle, and threw “incendiary devices” at the outbuildings for the Northwest Detention Center and vehicles in the parking lot. When confronted by police, he pointed his rifle at them and was shot dead before he could fire.
Van Spronsen was a member of Antifa (short for “anti-fascist”), a masked domestic “protest” group. This group’s members recently beat up journalist Andy Ngo to the point he suffered a brain hemorrhage and had to be hospitalized. Van Spronsen had been previously arrested for grabbing a police officer at an Antifa protest. This time, as reported in the Washington Times on July 15 and then picked up by other conservative outlets, he left behind a manifesto.
Four days later, the Washington Post published part of the story in a watered-down article titled “ICE detention-center attacker killed by police was an avowed anarchist, authorities say.” In the interim, tributes from Antifa Facebook, Black Lives Matter leader Shaun King, and other likeminded sources came out describing Spronsen as a heroic “martyr.”
Van Spronsen and Zinn Admire the Same Violent Vigilantes
It’s apparent from his manifesto that Van Spronsen believed he was liberating a “concentration camp,” as U.S. immigration facilities have been described by Democrats including the socialist lightning rod Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. After rambling on about “the forces of evil,” “concentration camps for folks deemed lesser,” and the ineffectiveness of “the centrist” reformer, the manifesto told readers, “see howard zinn, ‘a people’s history of the united states.’” The book would provide, he alleged, support for Van Spronsen’s assertion that “we are living in visible fascism ascendant.”
Van Spronsen named as his “teachers” Don Pritts, his “spiritual guide,” John Brown, his “moral guide,” and Emma Goldman, his “political guide.” The first two were quoted on their calls to “action” and Goldman, on revolution: “if I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution.”
As they were to Van Spronsen, Brown and Goldman are Zinn’s heroes. Both figure prominently in “A People’s History of the United States,” a book billing itself as a textbook that has sold more than 2.6 million copies since it was first published in 1980. It is frequently bought with public tax dollars and used in public school classrooms, then and now.
Zinn’s ‘History’ Text Preys on the Naïve and Uninformed
By any reasonable definition, Zinn’s book does not deserve to have “history” in the title. Zinn’s book is filled with lies, omissions, distortions of evidence, logical fallacies, and plagiarism from dubious sources. In my forthcoming book, “Debunking Howard Zinn,” I detail all of these critical problems. I also describe Zinn’s life, from budding teenage communist to Pied Piper professor at Spelman College and Boston University, and globe-trotting anti-American agitator.
Sam Wineburg, a history education professor, is simultaneously one of Zinn’s harshest critics and most vociferous defenders. He notes that Zinn appeals to the “inner Holden Caulfield,” the jaded teenage anti-hero of the now-classic 1951 novel, “Catcher in the Rye.” As the 2017 movie “Lady Bird” mockingly revealed, if there’s one thing Zinn’s book has been associated with, it’s self-righteous adolescent pretension.
Seeing the book only in this way, however, ignores the influence of this work of propaganda. David Horowitz calls Zinn’s textbook “the Mein Kampf of the Hate America Left.” Yet Zinn’s book is not merely another leftist version of American history. Zinn succeeded where even Communist leader William Z. Foster could not (Foster’s 1951 work, “Outline Political History of the Americas,” shares some stunning parallels). No other leftist professor has ever produced a book that has vaunted him into a similar degree of rock-star status.
Grabar has written a book Debunking Howard Zinn to be published August 20th. We have pre-ordered it at Barns & Noble which at this writing seems to be substantially cheaper than Amazon for the title.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/mary+grabar?_requestid=2124166
